SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Wednesday 15 April 2026
Welcome to the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, Fourth Edition. Some sample entries appear below. Click here for the Introduction; here for what we mean by Science Fiction; here for the masthead; here for some Statistics; here for the Acknowledgments; here for the FAQ; here for advice on citations. Find entries via the search box above (more details here) or browse the menu categories in the grey bar at the top of this page.
Site updated on 14 April 2026
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Watson, Ian
(1943-2026) UK teacher and author who lectured in English in Tanzania (1965-1967) and Tokyo (1967-1970) before beginning to publish sf with "Roof Garden Under Saturn" for New Worlds in 1969; he then taught Future Studies for six years at Birmingham Polytechnic, taking there one of the first academic courses in sf in the UK; he became a full-time writer in 1976, publishing around 200 short stories since 1969 at a gradually increasing tempo and with visibly ...
Vibbert, Marie
(1974- ) US author who began to publish work of genre interest with "Brain Trust" in Reflection's Edge for February 2006. Her first novel, Galactic Hellcats (2021), describes with mild gusto its two protagonists' adventures with "space motorcycles" as, variously pursued, they upset the applecart on a planet new to them, and continue their flight to interstellar glory. In the Near Future MegaDeath (2022) ...
Adams, Harriet Stratemeyer
(1892-1982) US author and, after the death of her father Edward Stratemeyer in 1930, editor of his publishing syndicate. Under a variety of house names, including Carolyn Keene, Franklin W Dixon and Laura Lee Hope, she was herself responsible for writing approximately 170 of the Stratemeyer Syndicate novels about the Bobbsey Twins, the Hardy Boys, ...
Swainston, Steph
(1974- ) UK author whose Castle sequence beginning with The Year of Our War (2004), though clearly understandable as Fantasy, does in fact inhabit a Multiverse some of whose iterations are clearly worlds understandable in sf terms. A hint of Medieval Futurism suffuses some of these worlds, and leads to the apprehension that the central story may itself ...
Hells
Japanese animated film (2008; original title Heruzu Enjueruzu; vt Hell's Angels). Madhouse. Based on the Manga Hells Angels by Sin'Ichi Hiromoto. Directed by Yoshiki Yamakawa. Written by Kazuyuki Fudeyasu and Yoshiki Yamakawa. Voice cast includes Chō, Keiji Fujiwara, Misato Fukuen, Daisuke Kishio, Miyuki Sawashiro and Fumihiko Tachiki. 118 minutes. Colour. / Rushing to her first ...
Nicholls, Peter
(1939-2018) Australian editor and author, primarily a critic and historian of sf through his creation and editing of The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction [see below]; resident in the UK 1970-1988, in Australia from 1988; worked as an academic in English literature (1962-1968, 1971-1977), scripted television documentaries, was a Harkness Fellow in Film-making (1968-1970) in the USA, worked as a publisher's editor (1982-1983), often broadcast film and book reviews on BBC Radio from 1974 and ...